This year of 2020 reminds me, somewhat, of our lives in Germany. There were trips planned, freedoms lost, missed times with husbands, wives, children and friends. We were locked down to a small area. Picking food up from restaurants was not a possibility because there were none in our little American community. We had our community center (one grocery store and one department store) to shop at with limited hours. Our German community was cut off from us. It was not safe to shop downtown, to eat in German restaurants or to make a random trip to France on a Saturday afternoon for pottery shopping and lunch. This post explains our lives in 1990-92. It was our third tour to Germany, our fourth city and our ninth year. By this time we were use to stairwell living, six apartments in each stairwell and three stairwells to a building. Our neighbors, …
After a year in Wurzburg we moved to Darmstadt and when I say we it was the Rotchfords, the Lancaster and us. We immediately checked in with the Girl Scout Neighborhood chairman to see what positions she had open. Pauline moved up to a Junior Girl Scout troop, where Kristie and Maria were placed. Meanwhile Lupe and I stayed at the Brownie level as co-leaders as Carmen’s troop leaders. Holan was too young for Girl Scouts, but she attended all the meetings and activities of the troops. Lupe, Fred, Steve and I supported Pauline with the Junior Troop which kept us active with Kristie and Maria. Along with the troop I served on the Neighborhood service unit. We had meetings every month to solve problems troops and leaders were having with girls, parents or the military community. We over saw the calendar and cookie sales on the military installations and …
50 years ago on December 1, 1969, Steve huddled around the TV in his dorm at Western Kentucky University as the first draft lottery since 1942 got under way. He had just turned 21 three days before and was in his junior year. Within minutes, the relative peace he enjoyed as a college student shattered before his eyes. This is how the lottery worked; each day of the year was printed on a piece of paper. These pieces of paper, representing each potential draftee’s birthday, were placed in blue plastic capsules. Then all 366 capsules (one for each day of the year, including leap years) were placed in a large glass jar. As millions watched on TV or listened on radio, the capsules were drawn from the jar, one by one, The first data drawn was assigned a draft number of “one”; the next date drawn received received draft number …